


BOOM

by taleanaomi



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Children's Stories, First Contact, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Major Character(s), Minor Injuries, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29192559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taleanaomi/pseuds/taleanaomi
Summary: A first contact assignment through the eyes of Sylvia Tilly.





	BOOM

**Author's Note:**

> Could be consider fluff, but I tie it into canon. Plot based on a children’s book.

It’s just a morning stroll, Tilly. Look green grass, trees, flowers, rocks. Normal. Just pretend you’re just taking a morning stroll. 

No matter how many times she reassured herself, it wasn’t working. Her brain knew that this wasn’t an ordinary morning stroll. Not when there was that strange thing in the distance. She made sure to note what it looked like as her training dictated. 

It had a head and torso just like her, two arms and two legs, but it was a curious shade of green. Puke green to be exact. None of this lime or dark pine. Puke was a great way to describe it. She rolled her eyes, imagining how that exact word showing up in her after action report. 

Yup. Definitely alien. She froze as it turned to face her. A curious noise started to emit from its general direction. A high keening noise. But not a cry, almost more like an… proximity alarm? 

Tilly gulped. She forced her body and legs to stay still. This was why she was here. This was what the mission was. Making first contact. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. 

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

You can do this. With force of will, she got her legs moving again… in the right direction. She walked almost boldly up to the strange green thing that looked like her. 

Her tricorder beeped as the small device took a closer look at the other noisy humanoid. It’s top, bottom, face, and even behind its ears. If this strange thing even had ears. 

With trembling fingers, she set the tricorder to translate on all languages. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath and spoke. 

“Hell… uh, hello.” 

She held her breath, waiting for it to respond. 

It didn’t take long. And when it did, what it did was rather unexpected. It responded with a rather loud, booming noise. 

Unprepared for the earsplitting response, Tilly jumped. She clapped her hands to her ears, shut her eyes tight, turned tail and ran. Anything to get far enough away from the auditory assault. She ducked behind the first tree at the edge of the clearing.

She peeked out, ears ringing. It hadn’t moved. If she could have given it any emotion, she would have said that it was puzzled by her rapid retreat. Maybe the booming noise had been some kind of loud greeting? 

She snorted. Loud was an understatement. Deafening would be more accurate. It was then that she realized she’d lost her tricorder. This first contact would have to continued without the aide of her technical device.

Tilly took a deep breath and straightened her spine, just like her mother had taught her too. You can do this. She firmed her jaw. Don’t back down now, girl. She had to try again. Caution was needed now that she knew that it could be loud enough to split a human’s eardrums. 

Slowly and carefully, she tiptoed closer and closer. Until she was close enough to reach out and boop it on the nose with a friendly tap, like one would do to a child. Not that she would do that. 

Mama Tilly hasn’t raised a fool and it would be foolish to touch this strange human without knowing what it would do to a bare human hand, to her skin. 

The strange human made that loud, ear splitting keening noise again. The alarm. 

Tilly shut her eyes and retreated backwards so fast. Her boot heel got caught on the edge of a rock and she landed with a thump in a bed of flowers, one hand clapped to her left ear. 

As soon as she fell down, the noise turned off. It must be an alarm and she’d gotten too close again that time.

“Fuck.” She said out loud. This wasn’t going according to plan. And now she was going to get dinged for swearing. A attitude unbecoming of a Starfleet officer. She was half tempted to say it again. She was screwed, royally.

The flowers were sweet smelling and clung to her hands and uniform with sticky pollen. The perfume gave her a peaceful feeling even in the midst of this assignment. It also gave her an idea. She picked a few of the flowers and got to her feet. 

She approached again, holding out the flowers in front of her like an offering. It kind of was an offering. Hopefully a peace offering, something to show that she didn’t mean any harm. 

The thing almost settled into an aggressive stance and let off another booming noise that had her dropping the flowers and grabbing for her ears again. She was sure that her poor assaulted ears were bleeding by now. 

Off ran Tilly once again for the safety of her tree, leaving the flowers behind on the ground. Once the noise had stopped, she peered out into the clearing once again. 

The strange green human was studying the flowers she had left behind. It looked almost sad, repentant. It bent down. 

Tilly closed her eyes, hiding behind the tree trunk as she prepared for the booming assault again. But when no noise came, she looked back again. 

It was moving now. She became nervous as she realized that it was coming straight for her. 

Then she saw what it was carrying… a magnificent bouquet of the same patch of flowers she’d tried to offer a moment before! 

It dropped the flowers at the trunk of Tilly’s tree and waited. Tilly slowly, cautiously slipped out from behind the tree. 

It didn’t move as she bent down and picked up the flowers off the ground. The green thing studied her and this time she heard a new noise coming from deep within it’s chest. 

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. 

And for the first time since this training exercise had started, Tilly’s heart was feeling that same rhythm. 

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. 

As she stood there with what one could call her new best friend, she could feel it. For the first time during this exercise, she knew. She was going to pass this First Contact Exercise. It was a happy feeling.

“You’re not so bad.” She whispered to the strange green looking human with a smile. She touched it’s metallic green skin. 

It let out a piercing shriek and toppled over. She almost tripped over her own feet trying to right it again.

“Cadet Tilly!” Her cadet officer’s voice yelled at her through the loud speaker. “Don’t touch the dummy! Leave it!” 

She froze in mid motion and backpedaled into attention. “Yes, sir! I’m sorry, sir. It’s just that It was falling and I didn’t want it to break and then… did I fail?”

Tilly almost heard a sigh. “You passed, Cadet. Please report to Medical.” 

Through her elation at having passed yet another test, Tilly almost didn’t hear the last part. Her grin faded as she realized what had been said. “Me… Medical, sir? Why?” 

Something was sliding down her left ear, tickling her jawline. She rubbed at it. It was sticky and wet, and red. It was then that she realized that her ears really were bleeding. “Oh.” 

The End


End file.
